Game 64, Mariners at Astros
Hernandez vs Rodriguez, 5:05 pm.
Happy Felix Day.
There’s no way to say this nicely – the Astros stink. They have a struggling Lance Berkman, an overrated Carlos Lee, a good rookie in Hunter Pence, and lots of bad players. They can’t really score, they can’t really pitch, and they can’t really field. But other than that, they’re awesome.
However, tonight’s starter for Houston is Wandy Rodriguez, who is actually pretty good. He’s shaved his walk rate by 40% while striking out two more batters per game than last year, and if he could figure out how to leave runners on base, he’d be a borderline all-star. Thankfully for the Mariners, he’s a lefty, so the M’s have a chance to hit him. However, he’s a good pitcher, so no whining about getting shut down by a no-name if this turns into a low scoring game.
And Felix, man, I don’t know how much more I can write about you. Just pitch like King Felix please.
Game 63, Mariners at Cubs
An early 11:20 start. No M’s TV broadcast. WGN’s broadcasting it, though, if you have access to their feed. Jeff Weaver v Jason Marquis.
Is it best that we don’t have television for this one? I’d rather not watch bad Jeff Weaver. Now, if he’s willing to put up another decent enough chunk of innings, that’d be fine. And I’m interested to see how he’s looking, since the back end of the rotation really needs the help.
Lineups posted when I see ’em.
Mariners
CF-L Ichiro
2B-R Lopez
RF-R Guillen
LF-L Ibanez
1B-R Sexson
SS-R Betancourt
3B-R Willie “The Ignitor” Bloomquist
C-R Burke
(pitcher)
How can a team with both Burke and Bloomquist lost? Also, I like that Sexson’s protected by Betancourt. Pre-season, who’d have thought there’d ever be a lineup turned in like that?
Cubbies
LF-R Soriano
CF-L Pie
1B-R Lee
RF-L Floyd
3B-R DeRosa
2B-L Fontenot
C-B Hill
SS-B Izturis
(pitcher)
Game 62, Mariners at Cubs
After last night’s game, the M’s could really use an innings-eating performance from… Miguel Batista? Uh oh. Making this even worse: tomorrow is Jeff Weaver, also not known for working deep into games. It makes me wish for Ryan Franklin who, for all his faults, could always be sent out to the mound in these situations with instructions to go nine innings and could pull it off: pacing himself, giving up runs as he went but taking one for the team.
Anyway, yeah — Batista v Marshall.
John Hickey’s blog entry over at the PI notes that the M’s didn’t make a roster move for reinforcements and brings up the specter of Julio Mateo, pitching in Tacoma.
So the bullpen:
Jason Davis (threw last night)
Sean Green (threw last night, and the 11th)
Brandon Morrow (threw last night, and the 11th)
Eric O’Flaherty (threw last night, and the 11th)
JJ Putz (threw last night, and the 10th)
Jake Woods (ding ding ding ding ding!)
I’m betting one of the “keys to the game” will be the need to go deep in the game and save the bullpen.
Game 61, Mariners at Cubs
Washburn vs Hill, 5:05 pm.
M’s go with their standard non-DH line-up, which includes Lopez hitting 2nd and Turbo banished to the bench.
Hill’s a good arm, but he’s not as good as his ERA would have you believe. Plus, he’s a lefty. And the wind is blowing out. Expect run scoring.
Game 59, Mariners at Padres
Happy Felix Day! 1:05.
I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, but this (and Felix’s next start against the even weaker Astros lineup including the shell of Biggio) are a fine time for him to put up some great numbers. Mix pitches early! Seriously! It’s the key to life!
Faces Chris Young, so I’m looking forward to a great pitching matchup, though looking through past game threads, it looks like hoping for great pitching matchups rarely results in them. Still, I always enjoy looking forward to seeing Felix.
Game 58, Mariners at Padres
The Return of Jeff Weaver! Yes! Has his time off doing exercises and throwing simulated games against Jason Ellison and Willie Bloomquist turned him back into a legitimate major league pitcher? Because that would be nice.
7:05, FSNW, we’ll find out.
Hargrove’s still too chicken to try Vidro in the field. I’m taking this as a sign he doesn’t want to intentionally sabotage Weaver’s first outing back.
I can’t believe we have get to see Weaver back in the rotation. Hopefully, we get different results.
Game 57, Mariners at Padres
After an off day, I hope you’re as excited to see some baseball my dear and unfortunately duped readers. Not exciting baseball (Lincecum in Oakland tonight!) but it has its charms:
Batista’s put together a string of not-disastrous starts since his May 12th drubbing at the hands of the Yankees. To compete, the M’s desperately need Batista to at least put up those kind of performances: get six innings in, keep the game under control. It may not be what they hired him on for, but they need the starting pitching to compete.
Fortunately, he’s up against the Padres, who are not a particularly good-hitting team. Even taking park effects into consideration, they’re not good.
Unfortunately, he’s up against Germano, who’s done quite well for himself so far. But the Mariners – they can hit this year. But then Germano’s right-handed, and the M’s aren’t as good against righties. Interestingly, though, the potential swap of Vidro-for-Sexson isn’t nearly the win it might seem. At least this year, while Vidro’s OBP v RHP (.339) is better than Sexson’s (.290)(ugh), Sexson’s decent power when he makes contact makes them a wash offensively. Even more interestingly, now that I look at those splits, is how badly Guillen’s done against righties. He’s hitting .240/.305/.367. That’s low. For a corner outfielder, too.
That’s likely not going to hang around: over the last three years, he’s hit righties better than lefties. Still, it’s weird to think that Guillen’s reasonable performance so far this year is due in such great part to his hitting left-handed pitching so well.
The really interesting thing, of course, is what happens if Hargrove, who seems somewhat bent on shoving Vidro, the team’s third-worst regular hitter (Sexson, Ibanez)(and it’s more like tied-for-second-worst, really), into the lineup, he may well do it at the expense of a lot of hitting and defense at third, less hitting and defense at second, or more or less a wash at first.
Which brings us to another point sometimes brought up in comments. Vidro’s 54 games into the year, he’s got 224 at-bats, 19 walks (11 GIDPs, 9 extra-base hits). At this point last year, Carl Everett had played in 54 games of 57, had 219 at-bats, 22 walks (5 GIDPs, 14 XBH).
Turbo: .290/.344/.357
Jurassic: .257/.338/.403
Carl Everett was, at this point in the season last year, having a better year than Jose Vidro is. You give up six points of OBP to get 43 points of SLG. At least Turbo isn’t quite as expens– ooooooh, right.
Lineups when they’re posted. I’m so excited to see them. Go for it, Hargrove! Be crazy!
Hot update! Hargrove chickens out! Buck-buck-ba-gaawwwwkkkkk! Isn’t baseball intended to be entertaining?
CF-L Ichiro!
2B-R Lopez
RF-R Guillen
LF-L Ibanez
1B-R Sexson
C-R Johjima
3B-R Beltre
SS-R Betancourt
Game 55, Orioles at Mariners
Burres v Baek. Two guys no one really thought would be in the starting rotation, for one reason or another, for long if they were in it at all – Burres was thought to be the second lefty in the pen if he was lucky, Baek was blocked by Weaver and other delicious signings – but here they are.
Game 54, Orioles at Mariners
A game thread that’s on time! Early, even!
7:05. Erik Bedard, who’s been having a pretty sweet year, faces Felix.
Bedard’s numbers, especially his strikeouts, are better than you’d expect, but the interesting thing is that his HR rate is actually a little over what you’d expect – he’s seen almost 12% of his line drives go over fences, which is almost 50% over his career rate. And he’s getting fewer grounders.
I don’t have a good explanation for whether he’s doing something different – I haven’t had a chance to see him this year – but I like going into this game thinking I might see a good pitching matchup.
Interesting lineup for the M’s:
DH-L Ichiro
2B-R Lopez
RF-R Guillen
LF-L Ibanez
1B-R Sexson
C-R Johjima
SS-R Betancourt
3B-R Bloomquist
CF-R Ellison
Baltimore offers
2B-B Roberts
LF-R Payton
RF-L Markakis
SS-R Tejeda
1B-R Millar
DH-L Huff
3B-R Mora
C-R Hernandez
CF-L Patterson
Game 53, Rangers at Mariners
Ooooookay, so we all got caught napping (or, in my case, making breakfast for my mom) and it’s already 1-1. Sorry.